"Hamlet" After Q1

Author: Zachary Lesser
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812246616
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
In 1823, Sir Henry Bunbury discovered a badly bound volume of twelve Shakespeare plays in a closet of his manor house. Nearly all of the plays were first editions, but one stood out as extraordinary: a previously unknown text of Hamlet that predated all other versions. Suddenly, the world had to grapple with a radically new—or rather, old—Hamlet in which the characters, plot, and poetry of Shakespeare's most famous play were profoundly and strangely transformed. Q1, as the text is known, has been declared a rough draft, a shorthand piracy, a memorial reconstruction, and a pre-Shakespearean "ur-Hamlet," among other things. Flickering between two historical moments—its publication in Shakespeare's early seventeenth century and its rediscovery in Bunbury's early nineteenth—Q1 is both the first and last Hamlet. Because this text became widely known only after the familiar version of the play had reached the pinnacle of English literature, its reception has entirely depended on this uncanny temporal oscillation; so too has its ongoing influence on twentieth- and twenty-first-century ideas of the play. Zachary Lesser examines how the improbable discovery of Q1 has forced readers to reconsider accepted truths about Shakespeare as an author and about the nature of Shakespeare's texts. In telling the story of this mysterious quarto and tracing the debates in newspapers, London theaters, and scholarly journals that followed its discovery, Lesser offers brilliant new insights on what we think we mean by Hamlet.

"Hamlet" After Q1

Author: Zachary Lesser
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812246616
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Get Book Here

Book Description
In 1823, Sir Henry Bunbury discovered a badly bound volume of twelve Shakespeare plays in a closet of his manor house. Nearly all of the plays were first editions, but one stood out as extraordinary: a previously unknown text of Hamlet that predated all other versions. Suddenly, the world had to grapple with a radically new—or rather, old—Hamlet in which the characters, plot, and poetry of Shakespeare's most famous play were profoundly and strangely transformed. Q1, as the text is known, has been declared a rough draft, a shorthand piracy, a memorial reconstruction, and a pre-Shakespearean "ur-Hamlet," among other things. Flickering between two historical moments—its publication in Shakespeare's early seventeenth century and its rediscovery in Bunbury's early nineteenth—Q1 is both the first and last Hamlet. Because this text became widely known only after the familiar version of the play had reached the pinnacle of English literature, its reception has entirely depended on this uncanny temporal oscillation; so too has its ongoing influence on twentieth- and twenty-first-century ideas of the play. Zachary Lesser examines how the improbable discovery of Q1 has forced readers to reconsider accepted truths about Shakespeare as an author and about the nature of Shakespeare's texts. In telling the story of this mysterious quarto and tracing the debates in newspapers, London theaters, and scholarly journals that followed its discovery, Lesser offers brilliant new insights on what we think we mean by Hamlet.

Shakespeare and the First Hamlet

Shakespeare and the First Hamlet PDF Author: Terri Bourus
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1800735553
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
The first edition of Hamlet – often called ‘Q1’, shorthand for ‘first quarto’ – was published in 1603, in what we might regard as the early modern equivalent of a cheap paperback. Yet this early version of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy is becoming increasingly canonical, not because there is universal agreement about what it is or what it means, but because more and more Shakespearians agree that it is worth arguing about. The essays in this collected volume explore the ways in which we might approach Q1’s Hamlet, from performance to book history, from Shakespeare’s relationships with his contemporaries to the shape of his whole career.

Teaching Hamlet in the Twenty-First-Century Classroom

Teaching Hamlet in the Twenty-First-Century Classroom PDF Author: Joseph P. Haughey
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1475871821
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 211

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Book Description
Teaching Hamlet in the Twenty-First Century Classroom is for both the novice and veteran teacher and offers fresh takes on teaching Shakespeare’s iconic Hamlet. Its lessons push students to engage deeply and creatively. Rooted in text and performance, each chapter provides ready-to-use learning objectives, reading guides, notes on language, critical backgrounds, discussion questions, film-based strategies, and project-based culminating activities that embrace students’ role in meaning-making. It is the book for teachers who want to get their students to love Hamlet.

The First Two Quartos of Hamlet

The First Two Quartos of Hamlet PDF Author: Margrethe Jolly
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 078647887X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
It is nearly two centuries since the first quarto of Hamlet was rediscovered, yet there is still no consensus about its relationship to the second quarto. Indeed, the first quarto, the least frequently read Hamlet, has been dismissed as "corrupt," "inferior" or like "a mutilated corpse," even though in performance it has been described as "the absolute dynamo behind the play." Currently one hypothesis dominates explanations about the quartos' interrelationship, supposing that the first quarto (published 1603) was reconstructed from memory by one or more actors who had performed minor roles in a version of the second quarto (published 1604-5). The present study reports on a detailed linguistic reassessment of the principal arguments for memorial reconstruction. The evidence--including a three way comparison between the underlying French source in Les Histoires Tragiques and the two quartos, and the informal features and specific grammatical aspects, and a documented memorial reconstruction in 1779--does not support the dominant hypothesis. The cumulative evidence suggests that the earliest scholars to examine the first quarto were right: the 1603 Hamlet came first, and the second quarto is a substantial, later revision.

The First Quarto of Hamlet

The First Quarto of Hamlet PDF Author: William Shakespeare
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521653909
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 148

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Book Description
The first quarto of Hamlet is radically different from the second quarto and Folio versions of the play, and about half their length. But despite its uneven verbal texture and simpler characterisation, the first quarto presents its own workable alternatives to the longer texts, reordering and combining key plot elements, and even including a unique scene between Horatio and the Queen. This new critical edition is designed for students, scholars and actors who are intrigued by the first printed text of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Although the first quarto has been reprinted many times, there is no other modernised edition in print. Irace's introduction outlines views of its origins, its special features, and its surprisingly rich performance history; her textual notes point out differences between the first quarto and the longer second quarto and Folio versions and offer alternatives which actors or directors might choose for specific productions.

Renaissance Drama and the Politics of Publication

Renaissance Drama and the Politics of Publication PDF Author: Zachary Lesser
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521842525
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
A study of the practices and politics of early modern publishers of plays.

Hamlet: The Undiscovered Country

Hamlet: The Undiscovered Country PDF Author: Stephen F. Roth
Publisher: Open House
ISBN: 0970470207
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description
This book reads like a cross between a literary detective novel and a personal conversation with a passionate Shakespeare scholar, unpacking the play that Roth calls the seminal text of the humanist religion. It unveils new realities about the playsome of which have have lain hidden since Shakespeares dayuntangles centuries of commentary and criticism, and delivers the punch lines for a whole raft of Shakespeares remarkably involved in-jokes. Roths scholarship tackles old arguments like Hamlets age (hes sixteen), lays out the intricate time structure thats embedded in the play, and unravels several of the plays endless allusions that so puzzle the will. He depicts a dense, ironic, and multivalent web of political and dramatic tension in Elsinore (plus a great deal of humor), and delivers one ahamoment after another for lovers of the Bards greatest tragedy.

The Tragedy of Titus Andronicus

The Tragedy of Titus Andronicus PDF Author: William Shakespeare
Publisher: BoD - Books on Demand
ISBN:
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 127

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Book Description
"The Tragedy of Titus Andronicus" by William Shakespeare is a gripping and intense drama that explores themes of revenge, betrayal, and the destructive consequences of violence. Set in ancient Rome, the play follows the tragic downfall of the noble general Titus Andronicus and his family as they become embroiled in a cycle of vengeance and bloodshed. At the heart of the story is the brutal conflict between Titus Andronicus and Tamora, Queen of the Goths, whose sons are executed by Titus as retribution for their crimes. In retaliation, Tamora and her lover, Aaron the Moor, orchestrate a series of heinous acts of revenge against Titus and his family, plunging them into a spiral of madness and despair. As the body count rises and the atrocities escalate, Titus is consumed by grief and rage, leading to a climactic showdown that culminates in a shocking and tragic conclusion. Along the way, Shakespeare explores themes of honor, justice, and the nature of humanity, offering a searing indictment of the cycle of violence and the capacity for cruelty that lies within us all.

Hamlet

Hamlet PDF Author: William Shakespeare
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1474273882
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 689

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Book Description
This Arden edition of Hamlet, arguably Shakespeare's greatest tragedy, presents an authoritative, modernized text based on the Second Quarto text with a new introductory essay covering key productions and criticism in the decade since its first publication. A timely up-date in the 400th anniversary year of Shakespeare's death which will ensure the Arden edition continues to offer students a comprehensive and current critical account of the play, alongside the most reliable and fully-annotated text available.

Hamlet's Moment

Hamlet's Moment PDF Author: András Kiséry
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198746202
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 339

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Book Description
Although we take for granted that drama was crucial to the political culture of Renaissance England, we rarely consider one of its most basic functions, namely, that it helped large audiences to understand what politics was. This book suggests that in this moment before newspapers, drama as a form of popular entertainment familiarized its audience with the profession of politics, with kinds of knowledge that were necessary for survival and advancement in politicalcareers. Shakespeare's Hamlet is particularly interested in these issues: in the coming and going of ambassadors, and in the question of the succession and of the conflict with Norway. Plays writtenby Ben Jonson, John Marston, George Chapman, and others in the following years shared a similar focus, inviting the public to imagine what it meant to have a political career. In doing so, they turned politics into a topic of sociable conversation, which people could use to impress others.